Hacking democracy
December 26, 2006 by muyiwa
I first knew of an HBO documentary with the above title when I received the November 2006 Cryptogram (an electronic newsletter on computer security published by Bruce Schneier of Counterpane Internet Security).
Because Nigeria had adopted electronic voting, I felt that the documentary would probably help me to better understand the issues, so I asked a friend to make a recording for me. I had a quick look at that recording a few days after I arrived in the US, and I've just finished watching it again. That documentary is nothing if not an indictment of the electronic voting processes in the US.
The software in the machines used in the US elections were not audited, and the documentary shows how easily the individual machines, as well as the software in the central tabulating centre could be hacked, and effectively give the election to whichever candidate the hacker wants.
In the murky waters of Nigerian politics, with deadly desperate politicians, it's not difficult to imagine the potential for massive fraud during the forthcoming elections in Nigeria next spring. There have already been complaints of faulty machines used for voter registration, and, as in the US, inadequate numbers of machines. Also, as in the US, there has been no auditing of the software (or hardware for that matter) to be used in the Nigerian elections. And in spite of public outcry against the use of these machines, and attempts by the legislature to ban their use, Nigeria's lectoral body and the executive are insisting on going ahead.
With the voting machines so potentially easy to compromise, is there any reason to expect an outcome of the upcoming elections in Nigeria different from what the incumbent government wants?
And just in case you're still doubting how easy it is to steal an election, take a look here. See this Forbes article by a Johns Hopkins University computer science professor for reasons why we must not rely on computers alone for elections, and here for a security analysis of the software used in most of the machines used in the US elections.
